All the Scattered Pages (eBook)

Act I, Scene 1

Drawing room of VINCENT and MARY Novello at 66 Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn, London in June of 1829. The walls around Center stage are of a delicate rose tint color, hung with water-color drawings by Varley, Copley Fielding, Havell, and Cristall. The floor is covered with a plain grey drugget bordered by a garland of vine leaves. In the center of the room are several large sofas with several sofa tables strewn with books and prints, along with several chairs. At one end of the room, Stage right, is a chamber organ with bench and another chair nearby. There are lit candles in sconces along the back wall and on small tables near the sofas and next to the organ. VINCENT is seated at the organ in black evening attire, playing sacred music by Mozart. He is in his late-40s, of medium height and a little stout, balding and clean-shaven except for carefully groomed sideburns that extend forward. He has a calm, friendly expression that belies his intensity and attention to detail. MARY, recently turned 40, is seated on one of the sofas. Taller than her husband and finely proportioned, looking young for her age, MARY wears an elegant light-grey dress with white lace collar and large white cap ornamented with pink and white ribbons. LEIGH Hunt, in his mid-40s, and CHARLES Lamb, in his mid-50s, are seated in chairs with drinks in hand, dressed in more casual dinner attire. THOMAS Attwood, in his mid-60s, and ALFRED Novello, 19, are standing around the organ in black evening attire.

VINCENT ends his playing, and everyone in the room applauses.

CHARLES

Vincent, as we are gathered here to see you and Mary off on your Mozart pilgrimage to Austria, it is fitting that you should play music by your beloved Mozart. But I would be remiss if I did not express my disappointment in not hearing my Serenata for Two Voices set to music. I expected my words, written on the occasion of Victoria’s marriage to Charles, to inspire you to compose music rivaling Mozart’s, sung by Clara and none other than myself.

VINCENT

Perhaps if you had sent it sooner, rather than waiting so long after the wedding, I would have finished it by now.

CHARLES

We cannot all be as efficient as you. But I blame my sister Mary for the delay, as she was the one who discouraged me from sending it.

THOMAS

Tell us Vincent, were you inspired by his words to compose?

LEIGH

Before you answer him Vincent, also comment on whether a composer’s greatest works are inspired by words or by a creative force that transcends words or thoughts.

VINCENT

That depends on whether music is meant to be in the service of language or is a language unto itself. I think it is both. So the real question is which comes more naturally for a composer. I have a bias towards sacred works of music, and because I think Mozart’s most profound work is the Requiem, rivaled only by his operas, I believe that musical creation inspired by language is the more natural state for a composer.

THOMAS

But you have still not answered my question. Since you did not perform a Serenata for Two Voices tonight, I have to assume you were not inspired by Charles. In which case, are you going to wait for the right words? I can assure you I never knew Mozart to wait for them.

ALFRED

Kelly said you were Mozart’s favorite pupil, did he not?

THOMAS

Yes, although he was prone to exaggeration. As a teacher Mozart could be rather blunt. There are some places in my exercise notebook where next to his corrections he wrote “You are an ass.”

LEIGH

If I recall, Mozart’s manuscripts never showed any changes, so he must have been sure of that before he wrote it down.

THOMAS

Thank you, Leigh, I’ve always been impressed by how you apply your scholarship to ridicule. This did amuse me, and I think my willingness to take a beating from him with a sense of humor while learning his style and approach to composition endeared me to him. Mozart was very liberal in giving praise to those who deserved it but felt a thorough contempt for insolent mediocrity.

MARY

Oh my, Leigh, then I’m afraid you wouldn’t have gotten on well with Mozart.

LEIGH

Mary, I used to think of you as Vincent’s better half; now I’m starting to wonder if I was mistaken.

Turning back to THOMAS.

Thomas, you were studying under Mozart when he composed Figaro. Was he not inspired by DaPonte’s libretto to write his greatest work during that time?

THOMAS

Yes, but keep in mind that Mozart was incredibly prolific during those 2 years, writing not just Figaro, but also six piano concertos, one symphony, three piano trios, two piano quartets, and one string quartet. I would argue that several of his piano concertos, including those in D minor and A major, are as inspired as Figaro. I’m not convinced that setting words to music is the more natural state for a composer like Mozart. For a strong, unrelenting creative force, the vehicle for creation is whatever is immediately at hand.

MARY

Is genius then what we call this creative force?

THOMAS

I think so. But it exhausts even as it animates, and therefore cannot be sustained for too long.

LEIGH

As with our friends Keats and Shelley. Or did they just have bad luck? Hard to blame tuberculosis and accidental drowning on genius. Mozart was only 35 when he died.

VINCENT

And such a loss that he was unable to finish the Requiem. Is there anything more frustrating than having a great work left unfinished?

CHARLES

Show me the man who finished all his work at the time of his death, and I’ll show you a man who did not have enough to do while he was alive.

MARY

Well, I think dying young is simply dreadful.

LEIGH

I’m afraid that dying old can also be rather dreadful. Take Mozart’s sister, Madame Sonnenburg, waiting to die alone in a room in Salzburg.

MARY

I hope our visit and gift will show her how important she is to us.

VINCENT

We also plan to meet with Mozart’s widow, Madame Nissen. Mozart’s youngest son will be in Salzburg visiting her, and we are hoping that he will provide a letter of introduction to Mozart’s former friend and colleague Abbé Stadler in Vienna and to his former pupil Joseph Eybler.

LEIGH

May I ask, what is it exactly that you hope to learn about Mozart that is not already in his biographies?

VINCENT

The image of the man remains barely discernible behind the brilliance of his music due to his sudden death and the delayed recognition of his genius. Aside from his letters, there is almost nothing else to sift through to give us a window into who he was. Nothing else, except for the remembrances of those who knew him well. Once they are dead and gone, there will be no threads remaining to tie us to him, and therefore we are determined to meet with these people and capture as best we can in words their individual portraits of him.

ALFRED

And now that father has put me in charge of our music publishing business, they also hope to find unclaimed Mozart manuscripts that Novello & Company can publish.

VINCENT

It’s time we went beyond publishing just my own sacred works and expanded to make choral works and other masterpieces by the great composers more accessible to the public. How I would love to publish facsimiles of Mozart’s original Requiem or Don Giovanni manuscripts if we could find them during our trip.

CHARLES

Now we see the real reason for your journey.

Vincent

What do you mean?

charles

Vincent, do you take us for fools? Your aim is to plunder Salzburg and Vienna for their Mozart manuscripts the same way Elgin plundered the Parthenon for its marble sculptures.

vincent

Those are strong words.

charles

They are honest words. Beneath that industriousness and altruism of yours, that delightful veneer of modesty and civility, there lies ambition.

vincent

Point to it.

CHARLES

Novello & Company.

vincent

Is ambition a sin?

charles

That depends on what the ambition is in the service of. Is it for others, or is it for yourself?

vincent

It’s for the world.

LEIGH

How grandiose! And what does the world want Vincent?

vincent

It’s not what it wants, but what it needs. It needs to see its most valuable gems. Not cheap reproductions, but the real thing. And it needs the provenance around those rare items to fully appreciate their...